President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

Well, he might as well start start wearing a hood or carrying a tiki torch.

 

Here's his follow-up.

 

The best way to combat Trumpism is to mobilize the Democrats' inherent numbers advantage. It didn't work with Trump of a perfect storm that involved a lot of factors (perception that Clinton is corrupt feeding into "both sides!" from independents didn't help, neither did the perception that her victory was inevitable). That doesn't mean it will never work again and Democrats are doomed to lose.

Reminder: Special elections right after presidential years generally occur because people got poached to join the administration, and it's generally expected that they will come from completely safe seats so that their replacements are guaranteed to come from their party. Instead, Republicans have had to actually spend resources to defend seats in places like Montana. Yes, it's miserable that a fucking piece of human shit like Moore will be anywhere other than jail, let alone the U.S. Senate, but his victory isn't certain in By God Alabama. That's not a red state that Democrats are hopefully eyeing for purpleness like Arizona or hell even Texas. This is as red as it gets. Sessions won his last contested election there 63-36, and then the next one 97-3 because Democrats didn't even bother to field a real candidate.

In state and local elections across the country, Democrats are doing way better than average this year. The highest profile actually competitive elections we've had were in Virginia. The governorship there was supposed to be a close race, and the Republican candidate who flirted with Trumpism got smashed. The state legislature was supposed to be gerrymandered to the point it was impossible to lose, but Democrats won the vote there 53-44, unseated numerous believed-to-be-unbeatable incumbents, and currently have 49 seats to 48 with three still in recounts.

So we don't *know* what's going to happen in 2018, but as of right now all the signs are pointing to Trumpism throwing gasoline on the fire that comes with the normal post-presidential electoral backlash against the President's party. I'm optimistic that as that starts to play out, the remaining sane portions of the Republican party will be able to regain a foothold and start retaking their party.

 

We already know how they would play it. They shook their heads at Trump every step of the way, then capitulated.

 

The leader of the party is putting all of his support behind a child molester. So, yes I do.

 

There are some important differences, though. Franken is already in office and will be replaced by another Democrat. It also took Democrats weeks to finally call for his resignation, in masse. (And I know you've expressed your disappointment about that.)

Chris Lee resigned just because he responded to a personal ad. Larry Craig resigned. It's not like Republicans never resign in these scandals. Trump and Moore were running for office, opposed by Democrats. I'm not saying that the GOP covers itself in glory, and the Saletan Slate piece was dead-on about their response every time: The people exonerated him in the election!

But if this was Joe Blow the Senior Senator from Alabama, former country music star, I can't imagine it plays out a whole lot differently.

 

He's not elected yet and he's running against a Democrat. Franken is in office and is going to be replaced by a Democrat. And it still took, what, two weeks?

 

We'll find out when Moore wins and see if he's expelled.

 

He won't be. That's the Saletan piece: The people exonerated him!

If the Moore scandal breaks while he's in office, they pressure him to resign, same as Franken.

 

This is good for the consumer why?

Trump admin scraps Obama-era proposal requiring airlines to disclose bag fees

 

You're finding an awful lot of distinction, but no meaningful difference. Other than everything about Moore's case is worse.

 

It'll make things easier on those deciding between an iPhone and health care.